BRICS Film Festival to explore areas of cooperation in the domain of cinema, culture & cuisine: Venkaiah Naidu

India to host the 1st BRICS Film Festival

Malayalam movie Veeram to be the opening film for the festival

Shri M

Shri
M.Venkaiah Naidu, Minister for Information & Broadcasting
has said that the idea of organizing BRICS film festival originated at the last
BRICS Summit where Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi proposed a BRICS
film festival and film awards. The Film Festival being organized would act as a
platform for people of the film industry of member countries to explore areas
of cooperation in the domain of “cinema, culture and cuisine”. The festival
would celebrate the excellence of cinema by rewarding film makers, actors,
producers and directors. The Minister stated this here today while addressing
the media at the curtain raiser press conference for BRICS Film Festival at New
Media Centre. Minister of State for I&B, Col. Rajyavardhan Rathore was also
present on the occasion

Shri Naidu mentioned that under the
India’s BRICS Chairmanship which is scheduled to commence in Goa on 15-16
October, a five-pronged approach had been adopted keeping in view the theme of
the summit which is “Building Responsive, Inclusive
and Collective Solutions”. The five pronged approach includes:

Institution
building to further deepen, sustain and institutionalize BRICS
cooperation;

Elaborating further, Shri Naidu said that BRICS Film Festival
would be a bioscope that would showcase distinct cultures, cuisines and arts
from the participating countries. A step taken to build bridges and bring
harmony amongst the BRICS countries, the festival would ensure more
people-to-people contact between member countries especially youth. In this
context, the minister said that India has planned activities like U-17 Football
Tournament, Youth Summit, Young Diplomats’ Forum and also a special screening
of student films from some BRICS nations during the course of the festival. Shri
Naidu also unveiled the poster for the BRICS Film Festival.

The
Minister also gave an overview of the Jury members including the Chairperson
who is from India. They are:

·Mr. T S Nagabharana (India) - A
Kannada director, writer, actor, pioneers of the Parallel Cinema, served as the
Chairman of Karnataka Chalanachitra Academy and founder of a theatre
organization called "Benaka”. He has won 9 National Awards and 14 State
Awards. Mr Nagabharana is the Chairperson of the Jury for the BRICS Film
Festival.

·Mr. Francis Vogner do Reis (Brazil) - A
journalist, producer and curator of film shows, professor of theory, history
& film criticism and co-founder of the electronic magazine Cine Imperfect.

·Mr. Kirill Razlogov (Russia) - A
graduate from the Moscow State University Lomonossov, Historical Faculty, Arts
History, holds Ph.D. in arts and cultural studies. He served as a special
adviser for 11 years on film history and international affairs to the President
of Goskino of the USS.

·Mr. Hou Keming (China) - A
professor of the direction department of Beijing Film Academy. He is also the
chairperson of the China Children’s Film Association and the president of China
International Children’s Film Festival.

· Ms. Xoliswa Sithole (South Africa) - Founder
and director, of Nayanaya Pictures, she is also a member of the British Academy
of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) and is the founding member of Filmmakers
against Racis.

The
Opening film for the festival would be the world premiere of the Malayalam
movie, Veeram directed by Shri Jayaraj Rajasekharan Nair and
starring Kunal Kapoor. The movie is a trans-creation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth
and flawlessly portrays the greed for power and the extent a person goes to
attain them. Shri Jayaraj, is a multiple National Awards Winner who has marked
his presence in mainstream as well as art house films. His last film Ottal, won
the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival.

The
Closing film would be the Chinese movie, Skiptrace, starring Jackie Chan directed
by Renny Harlin. The movie is an action-comedy, which revolves around a Chinese
detective who teams up with an American Gambler to catch a Chinese Criminal.

The
BRICS Film Festival will be held at the Sirifort Auditorium Complex, New Delhi,
from September 2nd to September 6th, 2016. In the course
of 5 days of the event, 20 movies will be screened in the competition section,
4 from each of the countries. The film festival will showcase an amalgamation
of culture, films, song & dance and food of the 5 member countries, Brazil,
Russia, India, China and South Africa. Exclusive cuisines from all the BRICS
nations would also be available at the Food Court, arranged in the festival
venue. A Craft Fair is also being organized at the Sir Fort auditorium complex
with all member countries putting up stalls with souvenirs and other properties
for sale.

Beyond
films, the Festival will also bring to stage spectacular performances by the
Chengdu Performing Arts Theatre (China), Theatre Leningrad Centre Dreams of
Russia and MBZ Music Production (South Africa).

The
films in the competition section from all the 5 participating countries are
listed below: